Sorawit

My interview was pretty quick too. The person who interviewed me seemed like a pretty cool dude. He was like: "You're going to Minnesota? You're gonna freeze yo @$$ off man." LOL Nothing really serious just standard questions like other people above

Coming from a person who has never been to the U.S. wouldn't help you much, but personally I would choose UTexas. I also got accepted to The New School with some financial aid, but after asking around, living in NYC will probably cost more than that in Minneapolis.

So far I haven't done much. I know I should be looking for places and potential roommates and whatnot, but I kinda have a feeling that doing this from half way across the world would yield nothing much. I do not know anybody in Minneapolis so my plan is probably trying to map the possible housing area by price and distant, and go look for myself when I get there in August. Do you it's too late?

Yeah it seems like GT is taking its (and ours) time to make the decision. I applied to Public Policy program and haven't heard anything back.

SkyDrive is also a good option as well. I prefer this to Dropbox due to its bigger free storage (7GB) and its ability to create/edit Office documents online. Other than that, it's pretty much the same as Dropbox. I'm using both, and they have been very reliable. Only encountered a glitch with SkyDrive from trying to upload my word document created from LibreOffice. Dropbox service downed twice for 3-4 years I've been using it, so no biggie.

I plan to go to the US about 4-6 weeks before the school starts, settle down, then fly down to visit my friends in Chapel Hill as a gift. Definitely want to go hiking/camping in the Appalachian Mt.!

I think I'll probably have to buy most of my clothes in the US since all my clothes now can only be worn in summer in Minnesota (and Bangkok's winter is not really, you know, winter.) So I think I'll have to do some serious shopping one I'm there. I think it's going to be challenging since I'm quite a small guy (5'7"). I'm looking forward to get a bike there though. Bangkok is not a very bike-friendly kind of place.

I used to love microbiology and was fascinated by the description of this certain bacteria that I came across in my freshmen's microbiology class. It only lives in the south pole Polaromonas vacuolata and, if I remember correctly, grows well at temp below 4 degree Celsius. And I thought "wow, how high-maintenance can it gets" (Not that I'm such that kind of a person, but I thought it was funny, in a nerdy way)

"Why don't you apply for X (some universities in Thailand, where I'm from) instead? Maybe you can keep your job and study at the same time." This is from my mom. I know she doesn't want me to move half the world away, but if there was such program in Thailand (master/phd in environmental policy) I wouldn't have spent 3 years trying to get into one of these schools.

^ This. You should also try to use the words you just learned or you'll forget them.

I'm totally jealous. It's not logical for me to go visit the campus for just a few days and fly home (I'm from Thailand). So I'll have to wait till July-August to go there and see for myself.

For me it's just an inevitable choice (at least in my head.) I've been wanting to do something in policy field for a long time. But my background is environmental science and I have very little knowledge in important subject like economics to get a job. I didn't get accepted at all last year. But i know that I'd regret not going through application process hell again. This year, it finally paid off. One more thing, it would've been much easier if I could get a scholarship from Thai government. But it doesn't offer any for environmental policy program and it's the reason i had to work so hard to get a spot at grad school in America (no, this program is not available in Thailand) At this point i don't even care about funding, I'll take a loan if i have to. I just know that it's what i want to do. Sometime i wish I could just walk away from politics and become a chef (i love cooking!), but again, i just know there'll be times, in the future, that i complain about illogical policies. I just can't face my future self for not try my hardest when i can. I'll just cook for fun

+1 on this. I'm waiting for 3 more programs. And I really want to make a decision so badly. I have so many things to do, especially I'm an international student and have to go through those visa, financial statement, or loan stuff (if I don't get funding). But I'm so ready to start my semester in this field.

I got accepted to UMN's MS-STEP program and it's definitely my top choice for a master's. However, I'm waiting for 3 PhD programs decision. We'll see how that turns out, but Minnesota excites me. It's gonna be so different from Bangkok weather-wise.

Hmmm I wouldn't be too worried if I were you. You seem like a competitive candidate. I got rejected from every schools I applied to last year, but I figured it was because I had too little work experience in environmental policy field (not that I have it now, but I twisted it to my advantage somehow in my SOP.) I think those 3 years of relevant work experience should give you a leg up.

Going to grad school this time for me is special, I'll be stepping into the field of policy for the first time. I've done some research work which natually based on the government's policy direction, but it's not the same thing. I'm super stoked to be around peers who come together to address environmental/sustaibility development issues. Also, I'll be in the US, where I already have so many friends there